Using multi-proxy palaeoecology to test a relict status of refugial populations of calcareous-fen species in the Western Carpathians

0447793 - BÚ 2016 RIV GB eng J - Journal Article
Hájková, Petra - Horsák, M. - Hájek, Michal - Jankovská, Vlasta - Jamrichová, Eva - Moutelíková, J.
Using multi-proxy palaeoecology to test a relict status of refugial populations of calcareous-fen species in the Western Carpathians.
Holocene. Roč. 25, č. 4 (2015), s. 702-715. ISSN 0959-6836. E-ISSN 1477-0911
Institutional support: RVO:67985939
Keywords : biodiversity * calcareous fen * fossil record * Holocene extinction * Western Carpathians
Subject RIV: EF - Botanics
Impact factor: 2.135, year: 2015

We addressed the question whether at least some ancient calcareous fens retained open-fen patches throughout the Holocene, using a palaeoecological approach involving proxies with different taphonomies (pollen, vascular plants, bryophytes, molluscs). We identified three old fens in the Western Carpathians, where several postglacial relict species have recently been found, and we reconstructed their histories. The site with the highest recent number of relict species was reconstructed to harbour open patches continually since the late Glacial to the present, including the middle Holocene when open-fen patches were restricted. By contrast, at the site with the lowest recent number of relict species, a large sedimentary hiatus suggested peat mineralisation or erosion that prevented the survival of light-demanding species. At all the sites, characteristic snails of European Glacial periods occurred during fen initiation, but disappeared around the early/middle Holocene transition. The probability of a relict species being present in a modern fen community increases with fen age, but it also depends on the continual existence of open-fen patches and peat accumulation throughout the middle Holocene.
Permanent Link: http://hdl.handle.net/11104/0249554